Buffy Sainte-Marie on Sesame Street

When I was a little girl I was taught that there were no Indians. The only time I ever saw Indians was when we visited the stupid natural history museum and they were dead and stuffed like the dinosaurs.... [When Sesame Street] called me up and said that they wanted me to recite the alphabet like everybody else does, and count from one to ten....I said that I wasn’t interested in doing that, but I asked if they had ever done any Native American programming.... I was doing essentially the same thing that I was doing all along, in trying to raise consciousness and spotlight Native America, because it’s fascinating and interesting.” — Buffy Saint-Marie, Canadian-American Cree songwriter, educator, and social activist, in an interview with Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict, June 2009

Since Buffy Sainte-Marie’s episodes of Sesame Street aired in 1975, representation of Native American and Indigenous Peoples in media has significantly improved, especially in recent years. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, which tracks representation in children's books, found that while only 0.6% of children's book featured Native American or Indigenous characters in 2012, that number increased to over 2% in 2022, a percentage akin to the current day Native American population in the United States.

Fortunately, among these titles, there are numerous great books available featuring Native American and Indigenous Canadian Mighty Girls! November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States, during which time we recognize the contributions and cultures of the Indigenous Peoples of North America.

To celebrate this heritage month, we’ve put together a selection of wonderful books starring Native American and Indigenous characters to share with your children. Whether reading a great piece of historical fiction, a fascinating biography, or a story that features modern Native American girls in their day-to-day lives, they’ll love these stories. And who knows? You might just learn a thing or two yourself! Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of new biographies about Mighty Women for adult readers.

Moms can be an incredible source of inspiration, but that doesn’t mean they can’t use a little inspiration themselves! Stories of the incredible women of past and present aren’t just great to share with young readers: they’re also a great gift when you want to honor a special woman in your life. With that in mind, we've gathered a selection of new biographies for adult readers in a blog post which tell the stories of Mighty Women, all perfect for Mother's Day gift giving! Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of new biographies about Mighty Women for adult readers.

On A Mighty Girl, we feature thousands of books for children and teens about smart, confident, and courageous girls and women, but we are also often asked for reading recommendations for adults about inspiring women of the past and present. To that end, in this blog post, we're sharing our favorite biographies for older teen and adult readers about Mighty Women that were recently released in either hardcover or paperback.

The biographies featured showcase a diverse array of women from around the world in fields including science, entertainment, politics, athletics, and more. Some of the featured women are famous figures from the past, while others are women who are active today, boldly continuing to change the world. All of them have a fascinating story to tell and each one shows the power of an individual to make a difference in her unique way!

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Our top picks of Mighty Girl superhero costumes from our Halloween costume collection and photos of Mighty Girls in costume shared by our community!

Who doesn't love pretending to be a superhero? Flying through the sky, using your skills, wits, and super powers to save the world is an exciting idea, especially for young children. So it's no wonder that superhero costumes are tremendously popular at Halloween! If a Mighty Girl wants to dress up as a favorite superhero, there's no shortage of Iron Man, Captain America, and Superman costumes but what if she wants to dress up as a female superhero? Costumes for even popular female superheroes such as Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl are often nowhere to be seen. And if the costumes are available, often they are either highly sexualized, with short skirts and cutouts — hardly the right outfit for someone busy saving the day!

To make it easier to find empowering superhero costumes for fans of every age, from newborns to adults, we've showcased our favorites based on characters ranging from Black Widow to Bumblebee. In addition to being fun to wear, these costumes remind everyone that the world of superheroes has plenty of strong, intelligent, and courageous female characters to inspire costumes and dress-up wear. Dressed as her favorite superhero, your Mighty Girl will feel ready to take on the world!

For even more costume inspiration on themes ranging from superheroes to animals, you'll find hundreds of costumes for all ages from infants through adults in our Girl Empowerment Halloween Costume Guide. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's round-up of the best last-minute deals on girl-empowering toys!

In our final toy round-up of the season, we're helping out the last-minute shoppers: all of the girl-empowering toys featured in this blog post are currently on sale and still available in time for Christmas. From science sets to pretend play sets featuring popular characters like Princess Leia and Doc McStuffins, we've included a range of options to appeal to Mighty Girls' diverse interests. And, best of all, with free two-day shipping for Prime members, you still have time to have it under the tree on Christmas morning! Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of Wonder Woman-themed books, toys, costumes, and clothing for children and adults.

For seventy-five years, Diana of the Amazons — better known to the world as Wonder Woman — has been thrilling fans young and old! The DC superhero has been an icon of feminism, a champion of peace and truth, and an inspiration to girls in particular, presenting them with a strong, powerful female pop culture role model. And with the live-action Wonder Woman movie becoming one of this year's blockbuster successes, a whole new generation of Mighty Girls has been thrilled to see their hero on the big screen!

To celebrate Wonder Woman's rise, we've put together a blog post showcasing our favorite Wonder Woman-themed books, toys, costumes, and clothing for both children and adults. No matter your age, there's plenty of ways that you can let your love of Wonder Woman shine! Continue reading → Continue reading

By Katherine Handcock, A Mighty Girl Communications Specialist

In our blog Beloved Books: Twenty Mighty Girl Classics, we shared twenty Mighty Girl books from 1950 and earlier that have become favorites of multiple generations. Naturally, though, there are many equally wonderful stories that were written more recently! These are the books from the 1950s to the 1980s that many members of our community grew up reading — and are now beginning to pass on to their own Mighty Girls.

Although all classics remain popular because they break new ground, these modern classics show the changes to the way Western culture viewed girls and women. The Mighty Girls in these pages tackle difficult social issues, go on hitherto unimagined adventures, and dare to define themselves in daring ways. More diverse characters begin to fill their pages, as well, with more girls of color finally filling the roles of heroes instead of bystanders or companions. Most of all, the girls in these books are no longer portrayed as eccentrics for being daring, courageous, and smart: in fact, for these Mighty Girl authors, that’s just as expected!

So take a look at our list and see if your favorite Mighty Girl book from your own childhood is on here! One way or another, it’s sure to spur you to share your own list of modern classics with the Mighty Girls in your life.

Of course, the books featured in this post are only a handful of the wonderful Mighty Girl books available. To browse our collection of over 2,000 girl-empowering books for children and teens, visit our Books section.
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By Lili Sandler, A Mighty Girl Senior Research Intern

If you’ve ever attended a baby shower for the mama-to-be of a baby girl, you’ve probably witnessed the overwhelmingly pink and princess-themed gifts that are, well, showered upon the guest of honor. In this day and age, the majority of women know the sex of their baby before she or he is born, and thus the heavily gendered gift-giving begins before the baby takes her or his first breath.

If you're looking for alternatives to stereotypical baby shower gifts — ones that celebrate the whole girl, even as they recognize and celebrate the joyous fact that she is, indeed, a girl — you'll find them in this selection of baby gifts perfect for any new mom or dad to share with their baby girl!

For more recommendations beyond those included in this post, you'll find many girl-empowering baby toys and gifts in A Mighty Girl's For Baby section. Continue reading → Continue reading

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese opposition politican. Photo credit: Htoo Tay Zar

Happy International Women’s Day! Today countries around the world celebrate the contributions of women past and present. A Mighty Girl has chosen to mark the day with this blog post featuring eight amazing women from around the world. Some of them will be familiar, but some of them will be new to you; all of them have left their mark on the world.

We have included reading recommendations for children and youth about each of the featured women. To view our complete selection of over 350 inspiring biographies of remarkable girls and women, visit our biographies collection.

Alia Muhammad Baker (b. 1953)

Baker was the chief librarian of Al Basrah Central Library in 2003 when the war in Iraq began. When she was denied permission to move the books, even after government offices moved into the library, she started smuggling books home; and when the officials fled the British advance and looters started to enter the library, she convinced the owner of the restaurant next door to allow her -- and eventually neighbors who joined her mission -- to store books safely in the dining room. Thanks to her efforts, 30,000 books were saved and became the core of a rebuilt library in 2004.

You can read more about Baker in The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq (ages 5 to 9) or in Alia’s Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq (ages 8 to 12). Continue reading → Continue reading

We frequently receive questions from people asking for recommendations for specific types of books or movies. In our "Ask A Mighty Girl" feature, we anonymously share select messages that may be of interest to the greater A Mighty Girl community. All messages are shared with the permission of the questioner.

Dear A Mighty Girl,

I was wondering if you happened to know of any lovely books with a Celtic theme I could share with my little sister? She is eleven and I am fourteen. We recently had some trouble with the other half of our family that is English and they convinced my little sister that she is ugly and should be ashamed for being Welsh. I was hoping you might know of some titles I could read with her to show her how beautiful and noble the Welsh and Celts are in general to help her? I especially want her to learn about our people’s history, the ancient Celts. Many historians see them as warlike and vicious but that cannot be farther from the truth. Our ancestors were beautiful passionate people. They knew how to live life to its fullest and to honour the world around them.

If there aren’t any Celtic books maybe something then that would help her realize that she is special and beautiful just the way she is? Our daddy helped me so much to understand that but he died last year so I am trying to pass on his wisdom. Our family is half Welsh and half English so at times it causes some friction. Most of our English family are the most lovely and wonderful people you could ever meet but a few for some reason think they are better than anyone else. Continue reading → Continue reading